


90s Kid and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

by nerdcredred, Ocelot_l



Series: Heartbeats Trilogy [1]
Category: Atop the Fourth Wall, That Guy with the Glasses/Channel Awesome
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2013-11-01
Packaged: 2017-12-31 04:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1027054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdcredred/pseuds/nerdcredred, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocelot_l/pseuds/Ocelot_l
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>90s Kid is having the absolute worst day EVER. What else could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	90s Kid and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Heartbeats](https://archiveofourown.org/works/520309) by [Ocelot_l](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocelot_l/pseuds/Ocelot_l). 



> All works can also be found on my LiveJournal page at http://bookishlady242.livejournal.com/
> 
> We do not own these characters nor the people who portray these characters. This is meant as a work of fiction and is fair use.

“90s Kid, it’s almost noon! Are you ever gonna get up?”

“Nnnnghhh….” The teen groaned as he rolled around in his bed. He squeezed his eyes shut and curled up into a ball, hoping the voice would go away.

“Come on, get up! You can’t just sleep all day!” He heard footsteps going away from the door and blinked his eyes, trying to focus. 90s Kid sighed, wishing he could just stay in bed. He was having the most awesome dream where he was at a party baking a cake with Pinkie Pie for Bloodgun and Superboy, and then Rainbow Dash was teaching him to fly. Leave it to Linkara to pound on the door and make all that awesomeness go away. What’s the big deal? Couldn’t he just let him sleep? It’s not like they had anything important to do that day.

But now, his dream was but a faded memory, and there was nothing left to do to get up. 90s Kid sat up with a yawn and stretched, running some fingers through his hair and looking around for some clean clothes. “Even if Linkara’s a total buzzkill, there’s still plenty of time to make today awesome!” he thought as he got dressed and slid his cap backwards. After tossing his pajamas onto his unmade bed, 90s Kid opened the door and went into the living room.

Linkara was on the futon as usual, reading a comic book. Harvey was standing in the corner lighting a cigarette, and Pollo was busy at the computer. 90s Kid went to the fridge to pour some juice for himself and then reached into his pocket for his cell phone. He smiled as he dialed a familiar number, walking through the room as he talked and drank. “Hey, dude! Are we still on for later? Where do you wanna meet—”

“Hey, watch it!”

90s Kid collided with Harvey Finevoice, his juice glass staying in his hand, but the juice getting flung all over the singer’s suit jacket. 90s Kid quickly said into his phone, “Uh, c-call you later, dude,” and hung up before looking sheepishly over at the other man. “Oh, sorry, man! I totally didn’t see you there!” Harvey growled angrily as his jacket started dripping, and he held his arms out to shake bits of pulp from them.

“For criminy’s sake, Junior, can’t you ever watch where you’re going?!” Harvey sighed in annoyance before stalking back to his bedroom to change. 90s Kid squirmed, embarrassed, and looked at the empty juice glass in his hand.

“It was totally an accident…” He glanced over at Linkara, who was frowning at him and shook his head in disappointment, which just made the teen feel worse. He hated screwing up, totally hated it. 90s Kid quickly put the glass into the sink and decided it might be best to leave before he did anything else wrong. He grabbed his skateboard from the closet and snatched up his keys as he headed for the door. “I’ll be back later, dudes.” Linkara didn’t even look up to acknowledge his leaving and 90s Kid sighed. “Um, I shouldn’t be that long.” Still no response. He gave up and headed out the door, shutting it behind him.

\-----

90s Kid felt his smile return once he arrived at the skate park. “Now this will TOTALLY make today awesome!” He headed up the ramp with his skateboard where several other people were performing tricks. Fastening his helmet and putting his protective pads on, 90s Kid was ready to have some fun. He kicked off and headed down the ramp, building up momentum before he started doing jumps and turns, grabbing the board and kicking his legs out, and generally having a ton of fun.

90s Kid loved the feeling of the wind on his body, the feeling of flying through the air. He thought back to the awesome dream he’d had with Rainbow Dash and grinned, performing another jump. He noticed that some of the other skateboarders were watching him, including some cute babes that were in the park today. He grinned at them and decided to put on a show. 90s Kid was took off like a rocket and was right in the middle of performing another one of his radical midair spins, but for some reason his body wobbled and he couldn’t complete the move. His eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen, but he couldn’t do anything to stop from crashing down into the ramp.

90s Kid felt a burn of pain on his leg where he’d gotten scraped up, heard the other skateboarders and babes laughing at him, and quickly realized they were pointing. He got up, kicked his skateboard in frustration, and decided to leave. “Today’s just been so unradical so far… this is bogus…”

\-----

90s Kid walked back into the apartment to drop off his skateboard gear and heard Linkara pipe up behind him. “90s Kid, you’re tracking dirt all over the floor!” He looked down and sure enough, there were sneaker prints leading up to where he was. Linkara rolled his eyes at him and sighed. “Honestly, you can be so careless sometimes.”

90s Kid’s shoulders slumped. He couldn’t seem to do anything right today. He always hated screwing up, but it was worse when it happened in front of Linkara; he had a way of making him feel so guilty with a single glance. 90s Kid looked up to the comic lover and wanted Linkara to always be proud of him, to make him feel like he was actually doing something right for a change. But it wasn’t gonna happen today. “I’m sorry, dude. I’ll clean it up.”

“See that you do.” Linkara stalked off somewhere and 90s Kid sighed, reaching into the closet for the vacuum. “I guess I’ll make the day awesome later…”

\-----

After he got to the arcade, his phone rang again.

“Hey! I can’t talk for long, but I wanted to tell you I’m gonna be a little late today. I have to replace ROB’s batteries and Dolly says I need to put some of these boxes in the attic. But don’t worry, I’ll be there! I wouldn’t miss today for the world. Meet me in the park, okay?”

“Sure, dude.” 90s Kid hung up then and slid his phone back into his pocket, disappointed that the other man would be late, but ready to put the previous events of the day behind him. “Now this HAS to make today awesome!”

90s Kid loved the arcade; it was one of his favorite places to be. He was notorious around here for having the top scores on a ton of machines and the staff all knew him by name. 90s Kid looked around a moment before he headed over to the machine of The Simpsons and put in some quarters, playing as Bart. He’d been getting better at this one, and he was sure that today was the day that he was gonna conquer it.

Time went on and 90s Kid was doing great. Level after level, boss after boss, he just kept getting further and further into the game. Soon enough, he came to the final fight against Smithers, and things started to heat up. He’d been trying to make it here for so long, he couldn’t lose now! Smithers knocked Bart out and he saw the countdown. Eagerly reaching his hand into his pocket, 90s Kid panicked when he found he was out of quarters. He thought about making a mad dash for the change machine, but it was too late. Game over.

Letting out a loud groan, he smacked the machine and took off. “Seriously, what did I do to deserve this, man?!”

\-----

90s Kid’s mood was very sour when he walked to the park. Ever since he woke up, nothing had gone right. Getting snapped at, laughed at, scolded, humiliated by a video game… he didn’t know what was gonna go wrong next.

90s Kid decided to get a soda while he waited. He bought a bottle of Pepsi from a park vendor and sat down on a bench. “Well, I guess I can’t go wrong with this.” 90s Kid twisted off the cap and proceeded to get absolutely sprayed with soda pop. He sat frozen for a moment, almost unsure of what had just happened.

Normally, he could’ve just shrugged this sort of thing off. It was just soda, after all, it was no big deal. But after all the events of the day and all the bad things piling up one after the other, all the disappointments, all the negativity, he finally got pushed over the edge by the tiny inconvenience of his soda exploding and started to cry. 90s Kid couldn’t help it; it had been the worst day EVER. Nothing that day had gone right and all he’d wanted to do was have fun. Was that so much to ask?

90s Kid took off his sunglasses and wiped his eyes, sniffling a bit, trying to compose himself. “Stop crying, dude… it’s not cool…” He didn’t even notice a man in a white jacket walking up to him. “Hey, I brought ice cream! It’s your favorite, with – hey, are you okay? What’s the matter?” Dan’s look changed to concern as he saw the tears on 90s Kid’s face.

90s Kid made room for Dan to sit beside him and took his ice cream cone. “Hey, man,” he sighed. “It’s just been a rough day, that’s all.” Dan put his arm around him and noticed that his clothes were wet. He leaned in and sniffed him.

“You smell like Pepsi.” 90s Kid held up the bottle and mimicked it exploding all over him. Dan nodded knowingly and they both started to enjoy their treats. “That’s okay. I like the smell of Pepsi.” He leaned in and kissed his boyfriend’s cheek, squeezing his shoulder affectionately. “Do you wanna talk about it, sweetie?”

90s Kid started the whole story from the beginning, telling him all the things that had gone wrong that day and all the things everybody did, and how he’d just wanted to have an awesome day and everything seemed to be conspiring to not let him have it. Dan said nothing and just let him get all the words out, knowing sometimes it helped to just listen. “…and so, it’s been like, totally awful today, dude…” 90s Kid finally finished.

Dan patted his arm and sighed. “I’m sorry, Kid. Sometimes we all have bad days like that, days where nothing goes right and it seems like everybody’s out to get you. But sometimes even a bad day can have a happy ending, you know.” He flashed him a smile. “Like maybe your boyfriend comes by with ice cream and wants to take you back to his place so you can change into non-Pepsi smelling clothes and watch some Care Bears together.”

90s Kid couldn’t help but giggle, feeling a small lift in his mood. “That sounds cool, man. Thanks for the ice cream. I definitely, like, needed this.” He smiled as Dan kissed his cheek again, before they both finished off their ice cream cones.

“Anytime, Kid. Now c’mon, let’s see if we can still salvage the rest of the day.”

\-----

A few hours later, 90s Kid had showered and gotten all the sticky soft drink residue off him. He now sported a Snoopy bandage on his knee, was dressed comfortably in some of Dan’s clothes, and was cuddling on the couch with the older man as they watched a movie together. He had called Linkara to say that he’d be spending the night there before snuggling deeper into Dan’s embrace, sighing happily.

Dan smiled at the sight of 90s Kid’s relaxed expression and he leaned in to kiss him, glad that he was able to turn his mood around. After the movie ended, he squeezed him and gave him his signature grin. “Feeling better, Kid?”

“Totally better, man,” 90s Kid replied, his usual smile and good mood coming back in full bloom. He gazed into Dan’s eyes and thought about all that had happened today once more. It had started out bogus and gotten even more bogus, but then Dan had come in to save the day. It was funny, but when 90s Kid thought back on all of it, he found he could barely remember his previous bad mood. It had completely evaporated and all that remained was a pleasant warm feeling going straight to his heart.

“I’m glad. After this, we can make some hot cocoa and perhaps some cookies, and I’ve got some awesome 80s board games from a garage sale that we can try out! Ever played Dream Phone or Crossfire?”

“No, but those sound awesome!” As the two got up from the couch, 90s Kid suddenly turned to Dan with a wondering look on his face. “Hey, dude…how did you do that?”

“Do what, Kid?”

“Make today the most awesome day ever.” Dan laughed and pulled him into another embrace, happy that he was able to help. 90s Kid squeezed him and his smile grew brighter. _“I knew that today was gonna be awesome. Sometimes it, like, just takes time and radical person, that’s all. This is so much better than Rainbow Dash teaching me to fly. I’d totally take time with Dan any day.”_

And with that, they went into the kitchen and 90s Kid forgot all about his bad day, knowing that if it ever decided to rear its ugly head again, he always had the best weapons to vanquish it: sweet treats and an even sweeter boyfriend.


End file.
